


Lancer

by doublejoint



Category: Fire Emblem Heroes, Fire Emblem Series
Genre: FEHweek2020, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-21
Updated: 2020-11-21
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:41:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27658324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doublejoint/pseuds/doublejoint
Summary: Lucina learns the ways of the lance.
Kudos: 3





	Lancer

**Author's Note:**

> For [FE Heroes Week 2020](https://twitter.com/feheroesweek) day 6: Weapon Type

The weight of the lance in Lucina’s hand is different from the weight of the sword. The balance is different; the grip is different; the weapon works differently. And it’s without a different kind of weight, the weight of ancestry and heritage and Ylisse itself that the Falchion has when she carries it in her hands. Compared to that, this lance, though honorable and capable and still difficult to wield, weighs nothing.

Still, though, Lucina’s trained with the sword her whole life. She knows how to spar, how to fight, how to win with a sword, with her sword. Though knowing how to fight and having observed lance users since she was a child gives her some sort of leg up over a total novice, she still ought to be better at it. She was summoned here to this world in order to use her lance, to fight for the Askran army against formidable foes. She can’t give them something subpar; she can’t give them less than she gave Ylisse.

* * *

The first person she asks for help is Princess Sharena. She demurs at first, claiming that she’s not the best with her weapon around, and that might be true but she’s still more experienced than Lucina. She smiles when Lucina tells her that, as if she hadn’t thought of it that way.

“In that case, I’ll lead the way! I can definitely show you the basics.”

Sharena is a cheerful and patient teacher, placing her hands over Lucina’s on the lance again and again, thinking about her approach and revising it, but she’s not as hard on Lucina as, perhaps, she ought to be.

“You’re too hard on yourself,” Sharena says. “You won’t learn it all in a day! A lot of it’s muscle memory.”

“I know,” says Lucina, but--she should still be learning faster; she should still know to line her knuckles up properly without being corrected already.

“Well, okay,” says Sharena.

Still, Lucina learns to recognize her mistakes, and the next morning she learns the right places to be sore. So she continues, and if Sharena won’t set her expectations sky-high from the start, Lucina won’t lower her own.

* * *

Princess Fjorm is a bit more stern where Sharena is soft, but nearly as patient, and much more detail-oriented. She can best Sharena in combat, too, even without deploying her ice powers; her moves are graceful and efficient but only because she practices so much--though her stamina’s not as high as Lucina’s.

“That’s why you have to be efficient,” Fjorm says. “Sometimes you have to fight with less of a baseline, and you won’t always have this much energy.”

Lucina hopes that day for her is far away, though she can’t deny the practicality of it. And even if she’s always fighting with full energy at her current level, if she’s more efficient she can get more done. They lift weights together; they practice bringing the lance down to meet minimal wind resistance, the delicate wrist motions of plunging it through armor, going from either side, twisting from bad positions. This is where Lucina begins to see herself improve, where she wakes up feeling less sore, where she sees her own arm muscles defined in a different way. She is hungry; she is pushing; she begins to feel as if she’ll actually get there.

* * *

When Lucina goes to Cordelia, she knows why she hasn’t approached her before. Cordelia’s expectations, of herself and of everyone else, are always high; Lucina can’t bear not meeting them. She could take not meeting something arbitrarily set by Sharena or Fjorm or someone else who doesn’t know her first as Ylissean royalty, as her father’s daughter, but as one of the many heroes of the army, yet another person from a distant land. Perhaps that makes her a bit of a coward; perhaps that’s something she’ll have to work on that isn’t even as easy as learning to use a different weapon. 

“Let’s see what you can do,” says Cordelia.

With two flashes of her own lance, she’s pinned Lucina down to the ground and nearly pierced her armor.

“Not bad,” Cordelia says. “I’d be a better teacher if you rode a flying mount, too.”

Lucina shakes her head. “I’d rather not.”

“Fair enough,” says Cordelia. “But this won’t be easy.”

“I know,” says Lucina.

(She hadn’t known quite how hard it would be, though, but she’s glad of it.)

* * *

Lucina’s spent too much of her life being thrown into situations she hasn’t been ready for, some that she never could be, but others that she couldn’t be without having done it without being ready first, almost (but not quite) a paradox. It’s cyclical, like time, and here she is again, not yet satisfied with her skills at the lance but sent into battle against advancing forces. No Sharena, no Cordelia, no Fjorm; it’s just her and the rest of her team. They trust her with her lance, and she will have to deliver despite her subpar skills.

She can see and hear the fighting all around her, hear the Summoner’s voice shouting the names of battle plans over the din. She steadies her lance and waits.

“Lucina! Defend against that sword cavalier.”

She steps in front of Genny, the team’s healer; on one side of her is a crumbling wall and on the other side is the edge of a thick forest. The cavalier’s got no choice if he wants to attack; it’s her or nothing. He raises his sword, and she raises her lance to block it and counterattack (the blow of the blade smarts a little, but nothing Lucina can’t ignore for the moment), spinning it blade-first against his armor, startling his horse and knocking him off-balance in the saddle. She steadies herself first, and again raises her lance--this time, her opponent doesn’t have time to strike before she knocks him down. 

“Do you need healing?” says Elise.

Lucina shakes her head. She’ll be fine; their teammates need it more than she does. And, though she could have done better--she could have done a hell of a lot worse. She’s had good teachers.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
